Carzy Zarx’s PC Gaming Emporium - Catch Up on All the Latest PC Gaming Related News

[JEMC]

It’s Monday and these are the news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/assassins-creed-shadows-hits-2-million-players-putting-it-on-track-to-be-the-series-most-successful-game-yet/
Just three days after its release date, Assassin's Creed Shadows has hit yet another milestone and passed 2 million players. According to Ubisoft, "Assassin's Creed Shadows has now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey."
Shadows had already sailed past 1 million players in its first 24 hours, easily breaking AC Valhalla's record. To put that into perspective, when Valhalla released in 2020, Ubisoft claimed it was its biggest PC launch ever (although the game's Steam playerbase remains smaller than other games in the AC franchise). Five years later, Shadows seems to have eclipsed even that.
This record-breaking wave of players at launch is thanks in part to the fact that Ubisoft didn't wait to release Shadows on Steam⁠—Valhalla didn't arrive on Steam until a full two years after its original release date. That may explain why Valhalla has far fewer players on Steam than Shadows, Odyssey, and Origins, which were all available on Steam at launch.
At the time of writing, Shadows' all-time peak concurrent player count on Steam is hovering at just over 60,000, within spitting distance of Odyssey's record of 62,069, but far beyond Origins (41,551) and Valhalla (15,679). If Shadows continues to attract new players at this rate, it could pass Odyssey's record in a matter of days.
In fact, Shadows is on track to be one of the biggest game releases of the year. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was hailed as a hit earlier this year and took two weeks to hit 2 million players, a milestone Shadows reached in just a few days.
>> I’ve checked and the all-time peak has reached 64,825 players, beating Odyssey. And now that you know, I won’t need to copy tomorrow’s the article about this milestone.

Steam has some new deals for us:

• DNF Duel is going to be 70% off during 39 more hours: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1216060/DNF_Duel/
• Make Way will have a 50% discount until the 30th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1445790/Make_Way/
• Shieldwall will be 60% off until the same 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1216320/Shieldwall/
• The Atari Family GDC Sale brings up to 85% discounts until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40527942/sale/AtariGDCSale2025
• The Aichi Game Castel! Is here with Japanese games to explore, with two of them being on sale until the 2nd and 3rd of April, respectively: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45345412/sale/AichiGameCastle
• And dotAGE, with a demo, will have a 30% discount until the 4th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/638510/dotAGE/

Humble Bundle presents the EARTH DEFENSE FORCE Collection, with up to 24 items (games and DLCs) to get during 18 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/earth-defense-force-collection.

And Fanatical presents:

• Star Deal is Farm Together, with a 70% discount during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/farm-together
• Publisher Arc System Works puts its games up to 90% off during 12 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/arc-system-works
• And the BYO Early Access Bundle has 14 games to choose for your 2+, 3+ or 5+ bundles during 20 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-early-access-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Valve's DRM was inspired by an exec's nephew, who 'used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator… he sent me a lovely thank you note'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valves-drm-was-inspired-by-the-cmos-nephew-who-used-a-usd500-check-id-sent-him-for-school-expenses-and-bought-himself-a-cd-rom-replicator-he-sent-me-a-lovely-thank-you-note/
One of this year's most interesting GDC talks was delivered by Monica Harrington, a founding member of Valve and the company's first chief marketing officer, who went over her history with the company that brought us Half-Life and Steam.
There's so much in Harrington's career and memories to pick out, but a notable anecdote which PC Gamer was also able to follow-up on involves when, in the company's earliest years, Harrington gave her nephew some money: and then found out what he'd done with it.
"At the time consumer-level piracy was just becoming a real issue," said Harrington during her talk. "My own nephew had just used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator, so he sent me a lovely thank you note essentially saying how happy he was to copy and share games with his friends.
"I knew he wasn't a bad kid, but there'd been this generational shift, plus the new replicator technology. All of that put our entire business model at risk."
Harrington was more on the business and marketing side at Valve and at the time most PC titles, including Half-Life, were distributed as CD-ROMs. Consoles like PlayStation had their own proprietary spins on the format that incorporated copy protection, but PC had no equivalent.
"Because of gamers like my nephew, we implemented an authentication scheme," said Harrington. "Customers had to validate and register their copy with Valve directly. Soon gamers were flooding message boards, and they were saying, 'The game doesn't work.'
"And Mike [Harrington, Valve co-founder] stressed out and calls everyone he can find who's complained. It turns out none of them had actually bought the game. So it turned out the authentication system was working really well."

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Dark Souls Remastered will soon get a Seamless Co-Op Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dark-souls-remastered-will-soon-get-a-seamless-co-op-mod/
Modder ‘Yui’ has announced that a Seamless Co-Op Mod will be released soon for Dark Souls Remastered. Similarly to the mod for Elden Ring and DS3, it will remove all multiplayer boundaries and allow for connections to persist after death.
This is one of the best mods for the Dark Souls games. And, since some players are still playing the first DS game, it will be a must-have when it comes out.
Going into more details, the Seamless Co-Op Mod will allow you to play with friends throughout the entirety of the game with no restrictions. With this, it’s theoretically possible to play the game from the tutorial up to the final boss completely in one co-op session. This will be a dream come true for a lot of Dark Souls fans.
What’s crucial to note is that if a player dies, they will respawn in the same world at the last bonfire they rested at. The session will not be terminated. Moreover, defeating enemy bosses and clearing areas no longer sends co-operators home.
All fog walls/barriers that usually restrict the multiplayer zone are gone, and all NPC dialogue and talk events will be synchronized. When one player rests at a bonfire the world state will reset for all players. Plus, game progression events completed in online play will also progress the game in your own world.
The mod will most likely support up to six players. This means that you can play in co-op with five of your friends. And that’s not all. The mod will overhaul Dark Souls’ peer-to-peer connection system, using Steam’s newer networking API. Thus, you should expect a more stable and robust multiplayer experience.
There is currently no ETA for when the mod will come out. My guess is that it will become available in one or two weeks. Or at least that’s what happened with the Seamless Co-Op Mod for Dark Souls 3.
>> There is a close to 5 minutes video of the mod.

GTA 5 Enhanced Edition looks glorious with the ChromatiX Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/gta-5-enhanced-edition-looks-glorious-with-the-chromatix-mod/
Last week, we informed you about the RealityV Mod for Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Edition. And today, we bring you another similar graphics mod, called ChromatiX. So, let’s see what this mod brings to the table.
ChromatiX Enhanced V0.1 Public Beta improves the game’s visuals in many ways. It increases traffic and pedestrian density, making the world feel more alive. It also enhances lighting and atmosphere for all weather conditions, both day and night.
The mod will also improve police sirens glow and intensity for day and night. Plus it will make the nights brighter, taking inspiration from RDR2. Rain weather will be now more dramatic with higher intensity and improved rain textures. You can also expect increased reflection intensity across all weathers.
Finally, the mod adds a new lens flare effect for a more cinematic look. Oh, and it will also enhance the night sky with improved star and moon textures.
>> The article has some screenshots and a video.

Cyberpunk 2077 Mod greatly improves environmental shadows
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/cyberpunk-2077-mod-greatly-improves-environmental-shadows/
Modder ‘sosuinepxisuyu’ has released a new mod for Cyberpunk 2077 that adds missing environmental shadows across the entire game. This is a must for pretty much everyone as it will significantly improve the game’s graphics.
The mod mainly focuses on improving the graphics when using Ray Tracing or Path Tracing. However, it can also affect the game without its RT effects, making more objects cast shadows. Plus, it will fix a bunch of visual problems with NPCs and the main player.
>> The article has some comparison screenshots.

A bizarre mod that adds human poop to Skyrim led me on an enlightening journey into Viking sanitation: 'Your world will certainly be more immersive, but it will also certainly smell worse'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-bizarre-mod-that-adds-human-poop-to-skyrim-led-me-on-an-enlightening-journey-into-viking-sanitation-your-world-will-certainly-be-more-immersive-but-it-will-also-certainly-smell-worse/
I've played a few Skyrim mods that stank in my time, but none quite like this. Everyone Poops­—Mihail's Shards of Immersion adds actual piles of excrement into Bethesda's perennial fantasy RPG.
"You can now find human feces near and inside some houses, forts and caves," writes Mihail Mods, the creator of Everyone Poops, which according to its NexusMods tags is "lore friendly" and "fair and balanced".
And when Mihail says everyone poops, he really does mean everyone. The mod is wholly dedicated to representing a broad spectrum of faecal matter. Alongside the biological leavings of humans, elves and beastmen, which Mihail says are all "greenish to brown in color", the mod includes the faeces of the Falmer, which have "some luminescence" due to the heavy presence of glowing mushrooms in their diet.
And yes, the mod also includes poop for giants, which Mihail says are "disgustingly gigantic", letting you embody the spirit of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park as you wander around marvelling at their voluminous dung heaps. The mod draws the line at non-humanoid creatures, however, so don't expect to see any dragon droppings knocking about. This is probably a mercy, given dragons can fly.
The mod even sprinkles some light simulation onto its glistening dung pies. "All feces emit heat, except for those that are old and have lost their 'freshness'," Mihail writes, while "blowflies can be heard around most of them." Mihail does not directly explain why they have opted to shovel shit into Skyrim, but implies it exists to improve immersion, presumably in the belief that no preindustrial society is complete without the reek of manure emanating from every corner. "Your world will certainly be more immersive, but it will also certainly smell worse."
>> For once, I’m happy to say that there’s no media in an article.

GAMING NEWS

Dinosaur survival horror game, Deathground, gets a new trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/dinosaur-survival-horror-game-deathground-gets-a-new-trailer/
Jaw Drop Games has released a new gameplay teaser trailer for its upcoming dino survival horror game, Deathground. This game has been in development for a while, and it will now take advantage of Unreal Engine 5.

Dark Mass is a new first-person underwater horror game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dark-mass-is-a-new-first-person-underwater-horror-game/
Path Games has announced a new first-person underwater horror game that will be using Unreal Engine 5, called Dark Mass. To celebrate this announcement, the devs have also shared the game’s debut trailer which you can find below.

New leaked gameplay for Battlefield 6 shows new urban map
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-leaked-gameplay-for-battlefield-6-shows-new-urban-map/
Two new leaked videos surfaced for Battlefield 6’s latest Playtest, showcasing a new urban map called Gibraltar. As with the previously leaked videos, they are of low quality. So, expect a lot of compression artifacts (which kind of sucks).

Atelier Yumia runs better than the previous Atelier games, but has ridiculously high CPU requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/atelier-yumia-is-a-pleasant-surprise-after-the-disastrous-atelier-ryza-ever-darkness-the-secret-hideout/
A few days ago, KOEI Tecmo released Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land. And, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by it. You see, Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout was one of the worst optimized PC games of 2019. And, after six years, GUST Studios has finally been able to offer a somewhat good PC game.